From 1989 to 2004, the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, had little trash collection equipment and no systematic trash collection. As a result, trash was left to accumulate on the streets, in roadside ditches, and at unofficial dump sites throughout the city, where it contributed to ever-worsening health and sanitation problems. The lack of trash collection was a frequent complaint of Kabul's residents.

As part of its CityLinks cooperative agreement with USAID, ICMA began a pilot trash collection and ditch cleaning project in the Qala-Fathullah/Taimani neighborhood of the city's District 4 in November 2004, working with the mayor and the Kabul Municipal Office. Qala-Fathullah/Taimani was selected as the first site because of its mixed Sunni and Shia population and its large influx of Afghans who had recently returned from years spent living in such neighboring countries as Pakistan and Iran. The resulting population boom in Qala-Fathullah had completely overwhelmed the system’s capacity to serve it.

After arranging for contract workers to locate and remove all existing trash piles, an ICMA team developed a trash routing system for the neighborhood's 3,000 homes.  Trash trucks, wheelbarrows, shovels, pitchforks, and pickaxes were purchased, and more than 100 city workers were trained in solid-waste management and paid a supplemental stipend as an extra incentive to collect the district's trash. They were joined by dozens of local workers and organized in 11-member crews that included a truck driver and two men to collect garbage door-to-door with a wheelbarrow. Other workers were assigned to ditch-cleaning crews. Citizens were educated about solid-waste management, informed about the scheduled twice-weekly trash pickups, and encouraged to lend their own labor and financial support to the program.

The program, which was conceived as a training model, was such a success that it was expanded to all of Kabul's District 4, with plans to eventually cover the entire city as well as bring it to other parts of the country. Already, ICMA has replicated the project in the Afghan city of Khost, where it has proved as successful as it was in Kabul.